Movies That Fell Through the Cracks # 9

Here’s another winner, ALABAMA’S GHOST from 1973, directed by one Fredric Hobbs who, by some accounts, was the poor man’s Ed Wood (and that’s REALLY saying something!). Apparently Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, rightfully skewered this masterpiece on her show some years back but since then it’s not been seen. I clipped this ad, though, when it passed through Cincinnati on its initial run to obscurity. Seriously, though, it SOUNDS great! I mean, how can you go wrong with a cool black guy (one Christopher Brooks) finding that a famous stage magician’s props give him real magic, then running up against transvestite vampires, Voodoo, Nazi scientists, hippies and elephants (with a robot of himself somehow involved, too). How could it go wrong? Well, apparently by having Fredric Hobbs as its writer/director. I’m on record as saying I greatly admire a cheaply made, imaginative film much more than an expensive but unimaginative one. Unfortunately, all of the reviews I find say that this is cheaply made AND unimaginative. Hard to believe from that description. Hmmm…maybe they could remake it with Wesley Snipes. They keep remaking movies like KING KONG that they got right the first time. Why not give something promising like ALABAMA’S GHOST another chance?